Are you being consistent in your branding?

Let’s be real. With all that you’re managing on a daily basis, in business and life, it’s easy for your brand visuals and messages to drift off course. It happens to all businesses. Even ones that focus on branding and design like Jewels Branch! The result: a business that starts to look and sound like three different businesses instead of one … and that’s confusing for everyone … your customers, clients, and YOU!

90% of consumers expect that their experience with a brand will be similar across all platforms and devices. They expect a seamless transition between web and device-native applications through color, flow, and overall quality. – New Jersey Institute of Technology Online MBA program

Get a clear, big picture view of your brand

If your brand is starting to feel like a hot mess instead of the polished and pro business it can be, it’s time to do a brand audit. Going through the process of auditing your brand will give you a bird’s eye view of all the pieces of your brand and help you adjust and re-align what’s needed.

MINI BRAND AUDIT PROCESS

Step 1: Gather Your Brand Visuals

You want to get all your most recent branding and marketing pieces in one place so you can zoom out and get a clear view of what your brand looks and sounds like as a whole.

Take screenshots of the key visual pieces of your brand.

Make a folder labeled “Brand Audit Date” (for example: Brand Audit April2017) and place all your screenshots in that folder.

• Logo
• Website: home page
• Main product graphics
• Social Media profiles: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.
• Video: intros/outros
• Newsletter graphics
• Printed Materials (biz cards, brochures)
• PDF Docs
• Your most recent blog post images
• Your most recent social media images

Put all the pieces together so they are easy to see as a whole. Try one of these options: upload screenshots to a secret board on Pinterest or place screenshots into a Word/Pages/Google doc and shrink to fit on one or two pages.

Step 2: Gather Your Brand Messages

Copy and paste your written brand messages into a Word/Pages/Google doc or Evernote.

• Tagline (from website)
• About Page
• Contact Page
• Blog: titles of last 10 blog posts
• Facebook: about blurbs on personal and business pages
• Twitter: about blurb
• LinkedIn: about profile
• Instagram: about blurb
• YouTube: about blurb
• Google+: about blurb
• Pinterest: about blurb
• Other social media profiles
• Social media profiles: content of last few posts

Step 3: Evaluate As a Unit

Brand Visuals

1. Pretend you’ve never seen your brand before.
2. Critically look at all the visual pieces of your brand.
3. Using your website as the standard, evaluate how well each visual piece of your brand matches your overall brand style (logo, colors, fonts, images).
4. Take notes and make a list of the pieces that are out of alignment.

Brand Messages

1. Pretend you’ve never interacted with your brand before.
2. Critically evaluate all your brand messages.
3. Evaluate how consistently you’ve used your tag line, titles, descriptions, url, contact information, etc across all the pieces you’ve gathered.
4. Look for incomplete or old profiles.
5. Take notes and make a list of the pieces that are out of alignment.

Step 4: Decide Your Priorities

1. Decide which pieces of your branding need to be adjusted.
2. Rank those pieces by priority. What tweaks will make the most impact?
3. Decide which tweaks you want to DIY and put time in your calendar over the next few weeks to do those.
4. Decide which tweaks you can outsource and decide on your timeline for getting those completed.

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Step 5: Rinse and Repeat this Mini Brand Audit

How often should you do this audit?
New businesses: If you are new to business and managing your branding yourself (diy-er!) schedule a brand audit every 3 months. This will keep you from going too far off base with your branding as you’re experiencing all the craziness of being a startup business. ***Important note: when you’re just getting started your brand and business can change quickly. Don’t get down if your brand still feels messy. Keep working on it and working to be consistent. Progress over perfection! … and if you want help getting started creating your brand and website, come join The Brand Workshop and we’ll help you out!

Established businesses: If you have a more established business, check in on your branding every 6 months (or before you do any big product/service launches). If you have designers or virtual assistants working with you on branding work with them to ensure they know your brand style and are being consistent as they apply it to any pieces of branding and marketing they are creating.

Remember your business and brand are a work-in-progress. Pat yourself on the back for taking this focused look at your brand and then get started re-aligning as needed.